RedEye sat down with Michele Smith, one of the candidates hoping to replace Vi Daley as 43rd Ward alderman. Smith, the Democratic ward committeeman, faces hospital administrator Tim Egan in an April 5 runoff election. Here’s what Smith said about her plans for the ward, and we’re hoping to get an interview with Egan too.

Tell readers a bit about your background, and why you’re running for alderman.

I moved to Lincoln Park when I was 24 years old and working as a law clerk and just fell in love with the neighborhood—like everyone else—and have never left. I’m running because of this wonderful neighborhood that I love and this city that I love. This place that I love so much is in a jam right now. We’ve got job problems, the city’s budget is a mess, and we need to fix it so we can move forward again and grow our economy.

I’m a lawyer, a former federal prosecutor who worked for U.S. attorney’s office, until I became a corporate lawyer at Navistar. I was asked to run for alderman by my neighbors. When I first moved here, Clark Street was thriving. Now I look at all the empty stores. We also need to fix the city budget with all of these legacy cost issues. Your readers’ generation will bear the brunt of all these costs and get none of the benefits.

How long have you been a part of the community in Lincoln Park?

I’ve been here since 1979, and my first apartment was at the corner of Clark and Fullerton. It was just the best place to be, right in the middle of everything.

What would you say is the most important issue in the 43rd Ward?

Crime and job creation are the two. Everyone always wants one but life is not that simple.

Personal safety is important to me. I moved here as a single woman because I wanted to be in a safe neighborhood, as many young people do. There have been some incidents of violent crime in the last year like armed robberies and armed assaults—at least anecdotaly—that the neighborhood hasn’t seen in a while. But also there’s all this exciting stuff going on like the redevelopment of Children’s Memorial Hospital, and I can’t wait to get started.

What’s the most important issue facing the city of Chicago?

Our financial crisis. With my background in a Fortune 500 company, I understand some of those issues the city is facing. We need to fix the cost structure of the city so it remains competitive, so jobs are created, so people can afford to live here. We want you to stay in Chicago—not flee to the suburbs when you get married and have kids.

There are three big things we’ll need to do. We have to change the way we do the budget, reform TIF financing [Tax Increment Financing] and give the city government a top-to-bottom restructuring. For instance, streets and sanitation is organized along the wards, which means garbage trucks and snowplows will do one side of the street and not the other because it’s a ward boundary. That inefficiency alone costs $30 million. Businesses pay up to 15 different license fees a year at different times to different departments, and none of it is online. Nobody runs a business like that anymore. Just modernizing, we can get a lot of low-hanging fruit in our city.

Do you support the plan to turn Lincoln Park Hospital into a grocery store and condominiums?

When you’re a homeowner in Lincoln Park, you’ve invested quite a lot in your home. Putting a large-scale retail development is inconsistent with that neighborhood. I believe that the people who’ve made the most substantial investment have rejected that development. I support the neighborhood in that. I did a study in the 60614 zip code, and there are 750,000 ground feet of available retail space. We’re overbuilt on retail, and we need to concentrate our efforts and make sure our retail areas are supported. That development at [the Lincoln Park Hosptial site] should heavily favor residential. Otherwise, it essentially creates a competing retail neighborhood. A reason Clark Street has fallen on hard times is the leadership in the ward hasn’t focused on business development, and developments are being built away from core retail areas. It’s step-by-step, though, and the plan still has to go to the zoning committee and then before the whole city council, which won’t happen till after the April election.

What’s your favorite thing about Lincoln Park?

The food, with the lakefront a close second.

Where’s your favorite place to eat, and favorite place to get a glass of wine in the ward?

You’re making me choose unfairly. I’ll give you my top three. Pars Cove on Diversey—try anything with pomegrante sauce. Simply It, the Vietnamese place on Lincoln Avenue—just fantastic. The Mexican place Las Fuentes at Wrightwood and Halsted.

Everyone in Lincoln Park is very busy with shaping their lives and their careers. I know I was. As part of that, I want to invite people to start to own the city, either through civic engagement to getting involved in the political process. Our city and our ward in particular is really the heart of the cultural center of our city. Come get involved.

Before March 8 you can still register to vote in Chicago. That’s something your readers need to know. Chicagoelections.com.

This is the talent center of the city, a talent pool that as alderman I want to draw on.

Michele Smith’s views on redevelopment in Lincoln Park take into consideration, more than any other candidate in the first election, the views and needs of the residents of Lincoln Park. She has not accepted contributions from developers and will not be beholden to them. Put the commercial where commercial belongs, not in a residential neighborhood catty-corner from the lovely Oz Park. With all that parkland, and the parking structure across the street from the proposed supermarket, where is all the concentration of residents who would walk to the supermarket? Michele already has a task force up and running on revitalizing Clark Street. And we need her to oversee and protect our neighborhood from what might happen at Children’s Memorial.

As an openly gay man and senior citizen, I have become a fan of Michele Smith. Over the years,we have constantly tried to get the now alderman of the 43rd Ward interested in the concerns of Senior Citizens, especially those residing near Maple St.and LaSalle. For 10 years, we asked for her help get a Stop Light at that cross street, and she promised and promised and only came through just in time to coincide with her last election.

What I like about Ms. Smith, she is accesable, and she listens and you don’t have to be a contractor! I am looking forward to her administration. Her opponent has the backing of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce… and they
seem more interested in big business, rather then the working claass and senior citizens of our ward and city.

Thinking of the new City Council that aldermen will be walking into, the ability to marshall facts and present persuasive, political arguments will be key, as well as the ability to negotiate and work behind the scenes. Given her background as successful Federal prosecutor and corruption fighter, corporate/turnaround attorney and ward committeeman (oh, those gender terms!), Michele Smith will be a terrific choice. She will be able to go head to head with the best of them on the Council.

I am an enthusiastic supporter of Michele Smith, having served on her Clark Street community initiative and admired her highly transparent and problem-solving approach to development. Finally, “Old Town School” type of person indeed — Michele will be an exceptionally strong advocate for the arts community of the ward and clearly understands it is a pillar of our economic vitality.